Author: AG

Rajon Rondo From Out of Nowhere With 25 Assists

Rajon Rondo — yeah, remember him? He’s been quiet since leaving the Celtics and slowly becoming a toxic teammate wherever he’s gone after. Well, he’s been averaging 6.8 points and 8.3 assists per game over in New Orleans — probably helps that he passes the ball to both Anthony Davis and Demarcus Cousins.

Rondo went out last night and dropped a casual 25 assists in 30 minutes in a win against the Nets. AND he dropped 2 points to go with it. 1-5 from the field, surprise surprise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Q7wo4TZMIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Q7wo4TZMI

 

This is the Rondo that we all watched and loved/hated on those big 3 Celtic teams. For comparison, Scott Skiles holds the record with 30 assists in a single game and it took him 44 minutes to do so. If Rondo kept up his pace (and who knows if he would have), he would have put up 37 assists. I can’t imagine he would have put up that much but he should have easily been able to break the record. He had 8 assists in the fourth quarter alone — outrageous efficiency.

Rondo has been kind of a forgotten player in this era of the scoring point guard but something about a vintage 1-5 from the field and 20+ assists performance just gets me going. Good to see Franklin can still ball out when he wants to.

Image result for franklin rondo

The NFC Absolutely Destroyed the AFC This Year

The NFL season is coming to a close and if you take a quick glance at the NFC — you’ll notice there are much stronger teams than the AFC.

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Of course, there’s years that the AFC is like this too and some of the strongest contenders (Patriots, Steelers) are waiting in the opposite conference — but take a look at this stat.

41-23! That’s wild, the most lopsided in 13 years — even with arguably the best QB in the NFC hurt for the majority of the season. Granted there’s not many inter-conference games as in conference but even the bad teams in the NFC did well. The Bears — yes the 5-10 Bears? Well they went 4-0 against the AFC North, usually one of the tougher conferences in the AFC. That means the Chicago Bears managed to beat both the Steelers and the Ravens while going 1-10 in the NFC

The Giants’ 2 wins? The Chiefs and the Broncos, both AFC teams. That means the catastrophe that has been the 2017 NY Giants even went .500 against the AFC. The AFC is certainly top heavy but that is not a good look.

The NFC however is 0-3 in the last three Super Bowls. At the end of the day, the NFC is going to end up beating up on each other and then the Patriots are going to get the battered remains in the Super Bowl. Business as usual.

Eagles Clinch #1 Seed in the NFC

On the last Monday Night Football game on the year, the Eagles managed to wrap up homefield advantage throughout the playoffs after beating the Raiders 19-10. Maybe the worst performance in a win to wrap up the #1 seed but I’m sure they’ll take it.  The Eagles wrap up the season against Dallas in a meaningless game for both teams so I’m sure some starters will be rested but Philly remains the only team to not be beaten at home, which does not bode well for the rest of the NFC.

The NFC, of course, is loaded with talent and any one of those teams can make it to the Super Bowl.

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If you told me one of these teams would make the Super Bowl (outside of Atlanta & Seattle), I wouldn’t be surprised. Having these teams have to come through a cold Philadelphia atmosphere in the playoffs is definitely a positive for the Eagles but Foles is going to have to play better if they’re going to win in January. He finished Monday night going 19-38, 163 yds and 1 TD. No chance that wins any games in the playoffs unless the defense plays out of their mind — the same defense which got EXPOSED again, this time by Amari Cooper en route to an easy 60 yd TD. They did hold the Raiders, who have been an awful underachieving team this year, to 10 points so there is some improvement there.

 

Also: stat of the year?

Foles, Keenum, and Goff — the Jeff Fisher effect.

Harry Kane Becomes Highest Goal-Scorer of 2017

Harry Kane bagged a hat-trick today against Southampton to bring his goal total to an astounding 56 goals in the calendar year of 2017. We always refer to Messi & Ronaldo as the best goal-scorers in the sport and rightfully so.  Here’s his second goal today that put him in first place for the year:

Tottenham’s striker has very quietly put in the most goals in a calendar year in the Premier League as well at 37 goals. To pour on more stats that show how insane this actually is:

Just some casual stats there.  The man has absolutely been on fire all year but will not get close to the same credit as those big names. Not to mention that he’s only 24 and still improving. This was the year for the Spurs to put it all together but they’ve fell flat on their face so far. This can’t take away from the fact that Kane is the best striker in the world right now.  He beat Alan Shearer’s record which many thought was unattainable. Shearer even took to Twitter to congratulate him.

Good to see the support from one of the game’s legends for a kid who’s only destined to improve. If he does it in 2018 again, I think it’s time to give him the respect he deserves.

DeAndre Hopkins Easily Had the Catch of the Year on Christmas

On Christmas night, with nobody really watching — the Texans found themselves down 27-0 to the Steelers.  On a meaningless drive, Yates found DeAndre Hopkins mugged in the endzone corner —

From the angle shown live, it looks like Hopkins wasn’t able to get both his feet in for what was an amazing catch but then we saw the replay..

He gains possession and then still manages to toe-tap while the defender is interfering with him. Doesn’t even look real. Unreal play and I think this has the potential to beat out the OBJ catch. The only issue, which has been the issue with Hopkins most of his career is that it was a meaningless TD in the 4th quarter of a game that was already decided. Hopkins is easily one of the best WR in the NFL but he’s caught passes from 10 QBs in 3 years which pretty much explains his circumstances. Obviously — things look brighter on the horizon with Watson coming back but he managed to snag this TD for TJ Yates who did not deserve at all.

Catch of the year easy and we’ll wait for the recency bias to leave before we deem this better than OBJ’s.

Bye Week Episode 5

It’s the week before the fantasy playoffs and we have the answers for the burning questions on your mind. AB is gone — who is your plug-in WR for the most important matchup of the year. Jimmy Graham has put up two duds and why you should still trust him. We finish with our bust of the week and bold predictions to end the fantasy season.

 

Last Episode

Office Chatter Radio: Fake Rules & Non-Catches

The Office Chatter boys are back minus one per usual to take on Week 15 in the NFL. The Catch Rule strikes again and Cam Newton is literally playing Madden on the field. Tyler has an absurd rule for touchbacks in the end-zone. Case Keenum is still Case Keenum. Our bold predictions segment returns  — maybe a win for everyone’s favorite 0-14 team? We finish up with our Jackass of the Week — with a controversial choice from Danny.

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Last Week’s Episode

LaVar Ball is Starting the “Big Baller League”

The most electrifying man in sports .. that isn’t in sports is back again! LaVar Ball has now come up with the outrageous idea of starting a basketball league for high school grads that don’t want to attend college. Stripping kids of free tuition to earn 10,000 a month playing for the Big Baller league. Amazing. I don’t know where this guy comes up with his ideas but he’s managed to become one of the biggest news stories of 2017 and to that I must tip the cap.

Ball’s Junior Basketball Association, which he says is fully funded by his Big Baller Brand, plans to pay the lowest-ranked player a salary of $3,000 a month and the best player $10,000 a month, Ball said. Ball is looking for 80 players to fill 10 teams that will seek to play at NBA arenas in Los Angeles, Dallas, Brooklyn and Atlanta.

However, the idea that he can essentially replace the NCAA is outrageous. Sure, the kids will earn up to  $10,000 a month but let’s be honest some of the kids at the bigger schools are probably being paid under the table. High school grads will undoubtedly be stupid for forgoing a chance at a free education just to play in LaVar Ball’s league but will it actually work? I can’t see this actually working.

However, players have gone overseas and came back to the NBA and found some success. If LaVar can strike a TV deal — can this actually work? The fact that we’re even considering the possibility of this just goes to show how powerful LaVar Ball has become. It’s absurd. If he can manage to snag one highly touted recruit, this does have potential to become successful.

The logo for the league features a silhouette of his son Lonzo, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, going to the hoop for a dunk.

“We don’t need a logo of a guy dribbling,” Ball said, an obvious reference to the NBA’s famous Jerry West silhouette. “Nobody does that anymore.”

Lonzo going for a dunk as the logo? LaVar’s troll game has literally reached new levels. 2018 will be the year of the XFL and the BBL and to be honest, I can’t even hate on it.

Jared Goff buys his O-Line Yeti Coolers and Hennessey

Rams — so hot right now. After a 42-7 (and honestly shouldn’t have even been 7) dismantling of division rival Seahawks, Jared Goff went out and rewarded his lineman for the great season that they’re having. The Rams, as you know, had the worst offense in the NFL last year.  Sitting at 10-4, with one of the most explosive offenses — life is now much better in LA than it was last year. A big part of that is obviously first year head coach Sean McVay but a lot of credit has to go to Goff and his offensive line.

We see this every year when QBs reward their lineman for not allowing them to get killed. Goff went out and got these boys Yeti Coolers and Hennessey to put in them — love the move. The two coolers together are worth $800 so not an overly expensive gift but still Yeti Coolers are awesome. Granted Zeke got his lineman last year golf carts..

Image result for zeke gator offensive line

But I like the move by Goff. Gotta start small and then raise your gift game.

 

Sidenote — If you’re Russell Wilson, do you just not get them anything? Something to keep an eye on.